Subversive diversity

A film by Jan-Holger Hennies

On the arrival of Spanish colonisation in the sixteenth century more than 200 languages were spoken in the territory that is known today as Mexico, of which only 68 languages still survive. Migration, however, has brought many of them deep into the country’s urban centres. Here these languages continue to be heard because some speakers refuse to let them disappear. After centuries of repression and enforced silence these languages are proof of resistance and a re-connection with memory and ancient roots. The collaborative project “Subversive Diversity” explores the voices and stories of three “hablantes de lengua” (language-speakers) in Mexico City.

In collaboration with Fabián Bonilla López & Uriel Nute Kuijin